Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!texsun!sun-barr!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!silence!jay From: jay@silence.princeton.nj.us (Jay Plett) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: Re^2: Unix deficiencies/problems Summary: setup for naive user Message-ID: <491@silence.princeton.nj.us> Date: 12 May 89 03:56:33 GMT References: <810038@hpsemc.HP.COM> <810049@hpsemc.HP.COM> <17410@mimsy.UUCP> Organization: Access, Inc. Lines: 26 In article , mike@yunexus.yorku.ca (Mike Marques) writes: > ... Under VMS I can > define TEXINPUTS, for instance, in the system wide logical name table > and when somebody uses tex things will work. Under UNIX you can't > transparently (I could be wrong) set things up for a user so that he > can do this. And don't tell me you just have to tell the user about setenv > or whatever, not all users want to know a lot of details about computers. In the skeleton .login that is installed in a new user's home directory: source /usr/local/lib/dotlogin In /usr/local/lib/dotlogin: setenv TEXINPUTS /wherever/it/is/this/month You need tell the naive user nothing. The slightly sophisticated user will edit h{is,er} .login, adding things before and after the "source" (according as they want their environment superseded by the system administrator's). The more sophisticated user is free to throw out the "source" and create a private universe. > Of course Unix was not designed for those users but that's a different > discussion. No, it's the same discussion. See above. Unix gives you the rope to design your own noose. jay@princeton.edu